A Hackable Web Toy Reimagines the Clock in Base 10, Binary, and Hex

A developer’s browser-based project revisits an old gripe: the day’s division into 24 hours of 60 minutes of 60 seconds is historical baggage, not sane math. To make the point, the page renders a set of working alternative clocks, each running on a different time system, and lets you read the current time off each one live.

The standouts are a decimal clock that splits the day into 10 hours of 100 minutes and 100 seconds—turning unit conversion into simple decimal shifts, at the cost of a ‘second’ that runs about 86% as long as the familiar one—alongside base-2 and base-16 variants for the numerically inclined. The binary clock is more novelty than utility, since each binary ‘second’ spans roughly three hours. There’s also a straight 24-hour face and a 36-hour ‘compass’ clock (36 hours as a nod to 360 degrees) added at a reader’s request.

The author notes the code dates to around 2012 and is rigid by modern standards—labels and ticks are hard to decouple—but frames it as an open invitation: the display format is easy to fork and customize, and new time systems are simple to add. It’s less an argument for reform than a playful demonstration of how arbitrary our timekeeping conventions really are.